Subscribe
Follow Us
As the great and fictional Tony D'Amato said, football is a game of inches. Unfathomably, that statement continues to apply to the Dallas Cowboys. Regardless of talent level, this team consistently manages to leave points on the board in big games. Whether it be via a penalty, turnover, or mental mistake, fans are often forced to look back on one devastating moment that ultimately proved to be the difference-maker in the game's outcome.
On Christmas Eve, it was a great defensive play by Miami Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott that thwarted a Tony Pollard touchdown on the first drive of the contest. Dak Prescott fumbled on the next play on a bad hand-off, and the Cowboys would lose 22-20. Pollard explained what went wrong in that pivotal rush attempt.
“I could have just kept running to the outside,” he said, per Sports Illustrated's Mike Fisher. “I was trying to get to the end zone as soon as possible. I didn’t want to waste time stretching it out. Then I ended up bumping into my own guy {tight end Jake Ferguson} and got spun around. You live and you learn.”
The execution definitely could have been better, but Elliott deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his relentlessness. Besides, Pollard still gained the yard the Cowboys needed to give them 1st-and-goal. The subsequent fumble is what obviously halted Dallas' momentum. Though, one cannot help but dwell on such a notable play when trying to make sense of another road loss.
With a home matchup with the Detroit Lions in Week 17 and a road game against the lowly Washington Commanders in the regular season finale, the next time Tony Pollard and the Cowboys will be able to earn a marquee win away from home will be the playoffs. Surely, these shortcomings will end eventually, right?
